It's so easy to get carried away with all the affiliate programmes available on the internet today. There are literally millions of affiliates to choose from. So the big question is “which one do I choose”?

In my experience, I would say that half of the affiliate programmes available are not worth your time and energy, simply because the product is not up to scratch, or the sales page for the product is very poor and will not convert enough sales.

Also, if the affiliate does not provide you with marketing tools to promote their product, like banner ads, article copy, support back up and so on, then you simply can't promote the product in an efficient and productive way. You could always spend your time creating your own marketing tools for the product, but that could take days and cost you money.

Do not rush into signing up for every affiliate programme you see. Do your research and due diligence before committing your time, energy and money to any affiliate programme.

Affiliate Marketing Programme Tip One: The Product

Check out the affiliate product, is it a good product? Is it something people would buy? Is it worth the sale price? Research the product yourself and where ever possible try out the product. If you would prefer not to buy the product, contact the affiliate and say you are thinking of promoting their product, and can you have a sample copy. It's always best to understand the product completely before you do any promoting.

Affiliate Marketing Programme Tip Two: The Sales Page

Spend time on the product sales page and any other marketing information provided by the affiliate. Does the sales page look professional? Is it informative? Are you convinced by the sales copy to buy the product? Does it get your juices flowing? Does it look like a high conversion sales page? Once you get a feel for the product and the way the affiliate is marketing the product, you will soon know if it is worth promoting or not.

Affiliate Marketing Programme Tip Three: The Commissions

It is normal these days to expect anything up to 75% affiliate commissions. However, it is not always advisable to go for the highest paid commissions. You still need a good product to promote. There is no point in signing up for an affiliate programme that offers 75% commissions if the product is poor, because you will not generate enough sales.

The rule of thumb here is to first do your due diligence on the product and then decide if the affiliate commissions are acceptable. You also need to be aware of when affiliate payments are made and how they are made, for example how long do you have to wait to get paid and is payment made by direct bank transfer or cheque.

Affiliate Marketing Programme Tip Four: The Marketing Tools

If you are going to be spending a large amount of your time and energy promoting an affiliate product, you will need the right marketing tools to do the job right. Normally, your affiliate will provide you with a good source of product information and tools, including good sales copy, article copy, banner ads, text ads, email copy, video tutorials, audio tutorials and even product samples.

If on the other hand your affiliate has none of these tools and you have to spend time creating them yourself, you need to decide if the programme is worth the extra work involved. If an affiliate hasn't provided you with any marketing tools what so ever, then I would personally not peruse the programme.

You also need to track the number of visitors you are sending to the affiliate product page. It is vital to have some idea on how many sales are made per visitors. Ask the affiliate for any tracking tools available. Alternatively, there are a number of free tracking tools available online. Go to Google and type in “free tracking tools”

Affiliate Marketing Programme Tip Five: The Conversion Rate

I promoted a product which according to the affiliate was converting sales at 5%. The example he gave was simple: for every 100 visitors I send to his website via my affiliate link, 5 of the visitors would purchased the product. It sounds too good to be true, and guess what? It was. I sent 500 visitors via my affiliate link to his website and received not a single order.

At first I thought it must be my affiliate link, maybe there was a technical problem. As it turns out it wasn't the link, it was the simple fact that the product or the sales page, was just not strong enough to return a good hit per sale ratio.

Normally, if I send 300 visitors to an affiliate sales page and no sales are made, I would look again at the product and the way the product was promoted. I would never simply continue sending visitors if no sales were being made. The least you need to do is change the sales copy and keep testing out new promotional methods.

Always do your own testing and don't take what the affiliate says as gospel. If you have driven 200 – 400 visitors to an affiliate sales page and no sales have been made, you must decide if the programme is worth perusing.